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EPASL leads Members of Parliament to visit disaster prone Areas in the Western Areas

The Environment Protection Agency of Sierra Leone in its strides towards working with policy makers in the country for cogent actions towards environmental safety and security had led Members of Parliament of the Parliamentary Committee on Lands and the Environment to disaster prone areas in the city. Present among the delegation were the Chairman of the Committee on Lands and the Environment, Hon. Quintin Salia-Konneh and the Deputy Director Planning Policy and Research at the Environment Protection Agency, Mr. Sheikh Ahmed Tunis who ably represented the Executive Chairman of the Agency, Dr. Foday Moriba Jaward. The purpose of the visit was to avail the MPs with firsthand information on the disaster caused by the heavy downpour of rain in those affected Communities and to solicit Parliamentary actions.

The delegation visited the Matormeh and the Colbot Communities which were severely affected by the recent mudslide and flooding disasters respectively.

Besides the August 14th 2018 mudslide, the Matormeh/Gbangbayila Community also recently experienced cracks which triggered government officials from the Office of National Security, UNOPS, Sierra Leone Geological Engineers and the Environment Protection Agency to visit the said community and come up with a comprehensive plan of action. During the recent visit by government Officials, Community people were warned to desist from cohabiting around the vicinity of the new cracks.

While at the Matormeh Community on the 20th of August 2019, Mr. Sheikh Tunis informed the Parliamentarians that within the month of August alone, there had been up to three mudslides in the said Community, adding that the entire community has many cracks which the EPASL and government in general is particularly worried about.

Hon. Quentin Salia-Konneh while stressing on the need for the Community people to stay away from the places where cracks have been detected also informed the people that their lives were more precious than anything they could think of on earth. He further reechoed the need for the Community people to adhere to the recommendation of the technical team which had earlier advised them to stay away from disaster prone areas.

The Members of Parliament also used the visit to acquaint themselves properly with more information on the recent disasters and hoped to come up with more concrete actions within the shortest possible time after the recession of Parliament.